Smile!

After a really rotten week symptom-wise, I was feeling a fair bit better (still very weak) on Friday and quite better on Saturday.  In the morning, I flew Mike and I to Brantford.  As we flew over Hamilton, another plane was just touching down there:

We were kinda happy to land in Brantford soon after passing over Hamilton, as coffee was seriously being craved.  As usual, Donkay joined us for the flight, as well as for breakfast:

Heading back over Hamilton, a West Jet flight had just landed and folks scurried off the plane:

Back over St. Catharines, the Grape and Wine parade was underway:

Montebello Park was set up for the concerts and other schtuff:

I’m lucky as I live downtown and get to hear all of the concerts going on at the park.  If the wind is just right, it sounds like they are just across the street.  Sweet!

Speaking of sweet, I was eating Jello with Cool Whip the other night and Abby decided she wanted to partake.  Here’s my view:

She was one happy kittah!

Tim Hortons just had their Smile Cookie fundraiser.  You can buy yummola smile cookies and all of the money goes to a charity in the region.  Mike kindly bought us some cookies to nom one night.  My first one was picture perfect:

Not too sure what happened with the second one:

Rather sad, but I guess we all have our flaws.

My little mother came to visit me this morning and the first thing we did was hit Timmies.  Since it was the final day for the Smile Cookie fundraiser, we figured we would make a contribution to a good cause:

After that, we hit Giant Tiger then back to my apartment.  Soon after she left, I headed back to the airport.  I took up a co-worker’s father for a flight.  It was a gift from her for his birthday.  He said he wanted to try some aerobatics so I demonstrated a loop and roll.  After that, we headed over the Falls then just around St. Catharines.  My favourite part of flying is taking people up and giving them a memorable experience!

Today’s symptoms: I feel so much better today than I did most of last week.  I had some severe fatigue, tons o’pain and generally felt flu-like.  So glad it’s over with. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/29/2013 8:32 PM

Amazing Camping Trip

Mike and I went camping to Long Point Provincial Park from Thursday until today.  My little mother was kind enough to lend us her car, as it has much more room than Mike’s or mine.  She named it The Dude:

I stopped in at Mike’s, we loaded The Dude up and hit the road.  Less than two hours later, we arrived in Long Point.

First thing first, set up the main sleeping tent and dining shelter:

Our site was probably one of the best in the whole camp ground.  We were at the far end of the park with only one other site next to us and no one across from us.  The lake was about a fifteen second walk away and the bathroom only a couple minutes.

We took quite a few long walks along the beach:

Donkay joined us:

Clearly he missed my cat, Mya.

I did something I couldn’t believe – I’m quite arachnophobic but mustered up the courage to touch this yucky fella:

Also touched a daddy long legs – I hate those things!  Some of the other critters we met along the way were this cute and interesting looking caterpillar:

Another cute caterpillar, who I rescued from the beach by the water and moved him up to a tree:

An adorable baby snapping turtle:

And the ultimate – a huge praying mantis on the beach.  Mike looked at me a little funny when I started poking at it.  You can imagine his expression when I said “I’m going to hang it off my head!”

I thought it made a lovely hair accessory!

On Friday, Mike and I went into the nearby town, Port Rowan.  Kinda ironic since his new niece is named Rowan.

We wanted to stop somewhere for lunch and passed by the Sunrise Cafe:

I had a BBQ chicken sandwich, Mike had a burger and we split an order of poutine:

We were blown away at the yumminess of the food.  Mike’s burger was super juicy, my sandwich was delicious and the gravy on the fries was out of this world.  We couldn’t believe it.  We decided then and there that we would be going here again before we left for home (we did so on Sunday!)   They also had amazing desserts.  We ended up getting six, including nanaimo bars, brownies and butter tarts.  The owner boxed them up for us and asked if we had a big family.  “Nope, they’re for us!”  Oink, oink!  They were happily eaten over the next two days.

The weather was horrible on Saturday – non-stop rain and high winds.  Unfortunately during the night, the dining shelter was hit hard and three poles broke.  We’re now on the hunt for replacement poles:

We spent the entire day in the main tent.  I wasn’t feeling well, so the storm happened on a good day.

Sunday was much better weather-wise so Mike and I went for another long walk on the beach.  For some reason, I decided to do a little planking:

I nicked my hand on a rusty bit of metal on the fence wire during this one.  Was quite glad my tetanus shot is up to date!

Of course, I had to plank The Dude:

My mother is proud to have such a normal daughter.

Sunday night, we started up a fire and I introduced Mike to “piggies”:

What a perfect night for a fire, as it was getting quite chilly, dropping down to 8 degrees overnight:

It was a bit of a downer getting up today, knowing we were going back home.  We had such a great time and are already planning on going back next year.  We want the same site and will probably go around the first week of September.  Can’t wait!

It was quite nice to see my kittahs when I got home.  I really missed them.  I’m so grateful for my little mother looking after them while I was gone.  Thanks again, Janski!

Today’s symptoms:  Needless to say I’m very tired today.  Totally worth it though.  One thing I was experiencing quite a bit over the weekend was spasms during the night.  Felt bad for Mike cause I think I woke him up a few times.  Either just a limb would go into a spasm and sometimes it was my whole body.  I’ll certainly be bringing this up to my neurologist when I go to see him in a couple weeks.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/23/2013 7:51 PM

Last Week Continued

Carrying on from yesterday’s blog….On Friday, Mike and I drove to Hamilton for a Harbour Boat Cruise, arranged through my office.  There were about a dozen folks from the St. Catharines office there, and over 50 from Hamilton.  It was a tad cool out, so after checking out the top deck of the boat, we headed downstairs.  But first, I thought I would let Mike know that I sometimes get motion sickness:

Fortunately, since becoming an aerobatic pilot, the motion sickness doesn’t seem to be much of an issue anymore.

After everyone boarded, we headed out around the Hamilton Harbour:

We dined on some pizza, samosas, veggies, etc:

Quite yummy!  At one point, I decided to saunter up to the cockpit (errrr…..whatever you call it for a boat), and meet the captain and crew.  They were super nice, as was the view:

The cruise was two hours long, but fortunately, seemed even longer.  Chatting with my work peeps, we decided to go to a restaurant/bar in St. Catharines to celebrate one co-worker’s upcoming wedding.  Heading back through Hamilton, we followed behind a dude with a fridge in his pickup.  Probably should have secured the freezer door – duh!  We were just relieved it didn’t fly off and into our car!

Dork.

At the restaurant, I joined my coworkers on the dance floor for about three hours, while running back and forth to check on non-dancing Mike.  It was an awesome night.

On Saturday, Boo was being a little goober and wouldn’t come out to the kitchen for breakfast.  Ok, just because you’re so cute, you get breakkie in bed:

Speaking of naked spoiled kittahs, I picked up Abby’s medication last week.  I showed her the receipt and asked if she appreciates the expense.  She just sniffed it and walked away.  Good thing she’s so darn cute!

On Saturday night, we went to Mike’s sister and brother in law’s house to meet their newest addition, little Rowan.  I think this is only the second or third baby I’ve ever held.   She’s a cute little thing!

We had a really nice visit, as usual.

I took someone up for an aerobatic flight on Sunday morning.  Her husband was the top bidder at a charity auction I had donated the flight to.  He gave it to his wife.  She was really nice, great to talk to and truly enjoyed the flight.  I love making people scream as we go around a loop or roll!  It was such a blast.

I have another flight tomorrow night to Welland (less than a 10 minute flight!) for a COPA meeting and BBQ.  On Wednesday around 3:30, I get to take up another victim….errrr….I mean passenger for an aerobatic flight.  Sweet!

Today’s symptoms:  Actually felt pretty decent today.  Had a fairly bad headache though, but I’ll take something for it tonight and hopefully it will be gone in the morning.  Out, Out damn headache!  (A little Elizaspeare for ya!)

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/16/2013 6:50 PM

Lindsay Butter Tarts!

Had the last fly-in of the summer last weekend.  I flew Mike and I to Hawkfield, up near Orono (East of Oshawa).  As usual, the flight through Toronto was very scenic:

Hawkfield is a private grass strip:

Great turn out thus far!  Mind you, when there is free food (in this case, corn), there typically is a good turn out.

Coming in to land:

Was marshalled to a great parking spot, fairly close to the front.  I think we were moved up there to showcase Vyctor’s undeniable cuteness:

Got out and chatted with some other fellow pilots:

I had one person (I can’t remember if this is him or not) approach me and ask if my plane was for sale.  Sorry dude!

I filled out an information card for my plane and stuck it on my prop.  It should be no shock to anyone that I filled mine out a little differently than most:

We headed over to the hangar to mingle and have some free corn:

I ended up meeting quite a few really nice folks.  That’s one of the best things about these fly-ins – lots of fellow pilots and aviation enthusiasts to talk to.  One person I did speak to said that Lindsay Airport was less than 15 minutes away.  That is where Mike and I went earlier this summer and brought back a few dozen butter tarts.  Hmmmmm…..Would be kind of a waste to be so close and not go!  I phoned the restaurant at the airport and they got about four dozen tarts ready for our arrival.

Very scenic heading there:

Hark, the home of the best butter tarts ever, comes into sight:

We headed to the restaurant, picked up the tarts and loaded up the plane.  Before leaving, I had to fuel up.  Once done, we headed back to St. Catharines.  We passed this neat field on the way home:

Check out the awesome plane shadow near the bottom of the pic.

The Air Cadets were out with their gliders in St. Catharines:

It was awesome day.  Sad to know the fly-in season came to an end, but what an amazing season it was!

I have more to share about last week.  Stay tuned tomorrow as the saga continues!

Today’s symptoms:  Actually felt pretty good today.  Just dealing with some crushing pains in my forearms this evening, but that’s about it.  Fatigue level was average.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/15/2013 6:09 PM

Project Completed

For some reason, I decided to paint the airplane light in my bedroom.  Not surprisingly, I wanted to paint it orange.  I have a can of paint from my plane, so that’s what I used.  I estimated it would only take a couple hours, but it took closer to eight.  Totally worth it though.  Here’s the before:

And after:

Sweet!  It’s a mini Vyctor!

Back in 2010, I won a $50 gift certificate for the Fallsview Keg.  Finally decided to put it to use.  Fortunately, no expiry date.  Mike and I headed there last night for our 5:00 reservation.  We had to wait a bit for a window seat, even though I requested one when I made the reservation.  Totally worth the wait.  The view was amazing:

As always at the Keg, the food was amazing too.  I got the filet mignon:

And Mike got the surf and turf:

And we accidentally ordered chocolate cake for dessert:

Awesome!  When we got home, I told Abby about everything we just feasted on.  Her reaction:

Yup, totally stunned (as usual).

Boo licked her chops when I mentioned steak:

I hear ya, Boo!  Amazing noms!

Today’s symptoms:  Very bad pain day.  Crushing pain everywhere and a bad headache.  Survived though!  Kinda looking forward to going to bed tonight and waking up all bright eyed and bushy haired.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/6/2013 8:33 PM

Kitty Photo Shoot

Got to see a couple good movies over the last week.  Needless to say, Mike and I have been looking forward to Disney’s Planes since it came out a few weeks ago.  We saw it and weren’t disappointed.  I love how the main character, Dusty:

 

…has a very similar paint colour and scheme to my Cessna 150 Aerobat:

We both loved the movie and will certainly be buying a copy when it comes out!

The other movie we saw was Elysium with Matt Damon – very good as well!  It was no longer playing here in Niagara so we went out to the theatre in Burlington.  Worth the drive.

The night we saw Elysium, we came back to my apartment and I decided to show Mike some of the outfits I bought for my kitties.  Not something I put them in for very long – just brief photo shoots.  Here’s a few pics from that night, which included some really cute hats my aunt made for the kittahs:

And of course, the infamous lobster outfit:

You can tell how enthused they all were!  Fortunately for them, it took less than a minute to get some good pics of each!

I put the Pinky lobster pic as my laptop wallpaper.  Mya wasn’t too impressed when she jumped up on it to check her email:

Little Pinky found the whole event to be a little too exhausting.  The next day, we found her out on the balcony:

Such a drama queen.

She wasn’t quite so relaxed when she was bathed last night.  Mya was the only one that didn’t need a bath.  The other three weren’t so lucky:

All survived and will be clean for another day.

Today’s symptoms: I seemed to have come down with something which started yesterday.  Feeling pretty lousy, but hopefully it won’t last too long.  As for my MS symptoms today, usual headache and aches and pains all over.  Nothing too major though!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 9/2/2013 6:39 PM